NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: NEW YORK UP CLOSE

A Hip-Hip-Hooray For City, But Jeers On Two Problems

By MARJORIE CONNELLY

Published: March 16, 1997

Ask New Yorkers what they like best about their city, and their answers are as varied as the people: the excitement, the culture, the convenience, to cite a few of the most frequent responses. But ask what they like least, and the responses most often are crime and drugs.

These are some of the findings of the most recent New York Times Poll of New Yorkers, conducted this month. Some people appreciate the transit system the most, while others are drawn to the economic opportunities. Some New Yorkers say they enjoy the conveniences found in the city, and still others approve of the variety it has to offer.

''New York is a wonderful place,'' said Hector DeJesus, 62, a retired engineer who was among those re-interviewed after the poll was conducted. ''I love the theaters, the restaurants, the stores,'' said Mr. DeJesus, who lives in the Clinton section of Manhattan. ''I can do everything here I've always wanted to do.''

Maya Glazynova, 19, a student at Long Island University in Brooklyn, said life in New York offered her the ''opportunity to go to a nice college that I could not otherwise afford.'' Ms. Glazynova, originally from Odessa, Ukraine, moved to Bensonhurst seven years ago.

Ruth Pettie, 57, a former city employee, said she liked the diversity she found in the city. But while she enjoyed ''a large variety of different cultures,'' she said she disliked the overpopulation and overcrowding she was seeing, particularly where she lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Underneath the surface of favorable feelings toward New York lies a continuing fear of crime. While 43 percent of those polled saw New York City as safer than it was four years ago, crime was cited by almost a third of those questioned as the most unpleasant feature of life in the city.

Lisa Lopez, a 30-year-old job search specialist from Queens, who has been mugged, said she was concerned about ''teen-agers, with guns and knives,'' particularly outside the boundaries of her neighborhood, South Ozone Park, Queens.

The telephone poll was conducted March 1 through March 6 with 1,397 adults throughout the city. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Of course, in typical New York style, what one New Yorker admires, another condemns. Some view a ride on the subway as a quick way to get somewhere, while others see it as a possible threat to their safety.

In praising the transit system, Gail Rodriguez, 41, a teacher from Bayside, Queens, said: ''I can get anywhere I want. I don't have to drive to get somewhere.''

But Ada Johnson, a 46-year-old homemaker from Bedford-Stuyvesant, worried about crime on the subways and buses. ''If somebody sees something you have that they like, they just take it,'' Mrs. Johnson said. ''You don't see a lot of police in the subways or on the buses.'' MARJORIE CONNELLY

Chart: ''The New York Times Poll: The Good, the Bad and the Convenient'' Here are the most frequently volunteereed responses to two questions in a New York Times Poll: ''What do you like best about living in New York City?'' Convenience of the transit system 10% Things to do, places to go, variety 8 Job or economic opportunities 8 Convenience, near things 8 Culture, museums 6 ''What do you like least about living in New York City?'' Crime, drugs 31% Dirt, garbage, pollution 8 Poverty, unemployment 7 Traffic, congestions 5 Expensive, high cost of living 5 (Based on a poll of 1,397 adults conducted by telephone March 1 to 6 throughout New York City.)